"Koroshiya Kiki Ippatsu" PV out now

Enjoy it.

Ringo collaborates with Soil & "Pimp" Sessions once again

There's a new Ringo song around the corner, and this time it's a collaboration with Soil & "Pimp" Sessions, a band she has worked with a lot of times before. It's called "殺し屋危機一髪" (Koroshiya Kiki Ippatsu), meaning something like "The Assassin's Close Call" but officially translated as "The Assassin's Assassin".

The lyrics were written by Ringo herself and the song was composed by her and Tabu Zombie, the band's trumpeter and one of the founding members. The arranger is Saitou Neko, another regular, and the song will feature a small orchestra.

There is a special teaser clip on YouTube and NicoNicoDouga, and a full PV will be released on June 7. The song in the teaser clip is called "ピンプパンサー" (Pimp Panther), which will either be a B-Side of the single or another track of a future album, if I may take any guess.

If the title of the song and video can tell us anything is that this is probably going to be reminiscent of spy action songs like "Mayonaka wa Junketsu", "Mittei Monogatari" or maybe "Karisome Otome".  The video is also very reminiscent of "Konya wa Karasawagi".

But that's just taking guesses, we'll have to check it out on June 7.

This collaboration represents the 2nd stage of Soil & "Pimp" Sessions 10th Anniversary, following April's release of "Jazzy Conversation", a collaboration with Rhymester, one of Mummy-D's hip-hop bands. You should remember Mummy-D from all the collaborations with Ringo, as well.

These anniversary releases point out to an eventual Soil's album this year, with "殺し屋危機一髪" included.

The following image, posted on kronekodow as a "mysterious photograph", looks pretty much like what the single cover will look like, without any words on it.

"Jazzy Conversation" was a digital-only release, but this time it will be a retail release also.

Title: 殺し屋危機一髪 (Koroshiya Kiki Ippatsu)

Release Date: 26/06/2013
Price: 1200 Yen
VICL-36788

Lastly, here's a bunch of screens from the teaser clip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shiina Ringo - 2007.03.11 - Otakara Show at NHK

After the (still shocking) Tokyo Jihen dissolution, we still don't know what plans Ringo has in her mind for the future of her career. So let's take a look at what she was doing in a not so distant past.

Otakara Show was a NHKG Special made to promote the Heisei Fuuzoku album. In it, Ringo spoke about her career and how she was approached to make this soundtrack for the Sakuran movie. There's also appearances by violinist Saitou Neko and Ringo's brother, Shiina Junpei.

The glamorous concept of the show is very similar to what can be found in the Baishou Xstasy or Dai Ikkai Ringohan DVDs, and the 8 performances are sure to please any fan of the Heisei Fuuzoku era.

01 - 歌舞伎町の女王 (Kabukichou no Joou)
02 - 罪と罰 (Tsumi to Batsu)
03 - 茎 (Kuki)
04 - パパイヤマンゴー (Papaya Mango)
05 - 錯乱 (Sakuran)
06 - 意識 (Ishiki)
07 - この世の限り (Kono Yo no Kagiri)
08 - 迷彩 (Meisai)

Download (MP3 V0)
Download (MP4 H264 848x420)

Tokyo Jihen - 2012.01.20 - Music Station

This is Tokyo Jihen's last performance on Music Station, which aired yesterday. The band decided to pick up both the last and first singles of their career: "Konya wa Karasawagi" and "Gunjou Biyori". As usual, the instruments are all playback, but Ringo seemed to actually give an effort this time, showcasing some of her best vocals on Music Station ever. The stage includes a Phase 2 logo with the Phase 1 colors, which was a very nice touch and matches the song choices.

Much to my surprise, they didn't really talk much about the dissolution, with only some comments from Ringo and Kameda. They did have somewhat of a special focus on the show, however.

For the stalker-ish fans (like me), I've included the first few seconds of the Big Bang performance where you can see Ringo curiously looking at them in the background. I wonder what she was thinking about.

01- 今夜はから騒ぎ (Konya wa Karasawagi)
02 - 群青日和 (Gunjou Biyori)

Download (MP3 V0)
Download (MP4 H264 1280x720)
Download (MP4 H264 848x420)

PS - I'm opting for 480p videos, since I can achieve smaller filesizes that way (200MB compared to 500MB for a 720p version). However, I'd like to hear everyone's opinions on this choice.
I've also changed Megaupload with Rapidshare, considering the recent incidents. I'll have to reupload every video on this blog as well, so before that it would be nice to know what you think of this choice too.

Shiina Ringo - 2011.12.31 - 62th NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen

Took me a while to upload, but here is Ringo's performance at the New Year's Eve National TV Show, the 62th NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen. It's her first time performing at this important television event, after all this time, and altough Jihen are present in the stage, it's really supposed to be a solo thing, with Ringo being part of the female team or Akagumi (Red Team).

She does perform one song from her solo career, the latest single "Carnation", and afterwards a Tokyo Jihen single, "Onna no Ko wa Daredemo". It's important to notice that this live arrangement of "Carnation" is exactly the same as the one performed during the Discovery Tour, which differs greatly from the orchestrated original song.

At the beginning of the video we can see Ono Machiko, who is the star of the dorama "Carnation", and also the band Arashi, which coincidentaly has had a strong connection to Ringo for some reason I've yet to understand.

01 - カーネーション (Carnation)

02 - 女の子は誰でも (Onna no Ko wa Daredemo)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 1280x720)

Shiina Ringo - 2011.11.11 - Music Station

I wish I didn't take so much time to upload this, but I've been too busy with bad-paying-work life.

This "Carnation" performance is pretty much like the Countdown TV one, with playback instruments included. It's nothing memorable. But I included the parts of the show where Ringo was interviewed, as well as a small segment where children watch and react to "Koufukuron" and "Honnou", much to Ringo's embarrassment. I don't mean to sound creepy, but she's irresistibly cute when she starts panicking.

01 - カーネーション (Carnation)

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Shiina Ringo - 2011.10.29 - Countdown TV

The first televised performance of Ringo's newest single, "Carnation". Last time Ringo performed on CDTV was back in 2007, four years ago, during the Heisei Fuuzoku promotion.

Altough there's the whole orchestra there, plus Tokyo Jihen members, it seems to me that with the exception of her voice, everything else is playback. I'm not a great fan of this song, but the vocals are amazing and the stage has this huge feel similar to what we find in the PV. Altough I was expecting her to use the same wig.

Opinions aside, here is the interview plus performance.

01 - カーネーション (Carnation)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 1280x720)

Shiina Ringo - 2005.07.08 - Bokura no Ongaku 2

This episode of Bokura no Ongaku 2 focuses on Mukai Shuutoku, former member of Number Girl and founder of Zazen Boys, but Shiina Ringo is the second guest, given her relationship with Shuutoku and the fact that they are both band leaders. They talk with each other about their careers throughout the episode and then there are two live performances, altough I only included the first one, which is a duet with Ringo.

"KIMOCHI", the performed song, is originally from Zazen Boys first album, but here we're presented with a slower duet version. Ringo also collaborated on their second album, with back-vocals for three tracks.

One of the things I'd like to hear her say, when Mukai Shuutoku asked her if she had any big dreams, she said she wanted to have a second marriage. I wonder if she still feels the same in 2011.

She also mentions that Sonata, her son, calls her "Haha" instead of "Mama", which is more tradional. And he tells her things like "What's with those dresses mother?".

Surprisingly, she also says she hopes to have a daughter, to somehow compensate for the fact she always grew up wanting a sister.

It's a very endearing interview and performance, I'd say.

01 - KIMOCHI feat. 椎名林檎

Download (MP3 V0)

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Shiina Ringo - 1996.10.10 - Music Quest '96

Look what I found! Shiina Ringo singing back in 1996. How nostalgic! Even though I only started listening to her in 2007.

Before signing up any record deal, and after she dropped out of school, Ringo participated in Yamaha's annual Music Quest contest. It was another try at success to kick-start her music career, after the previous year attempt, but this time she performed her own song, the later-to-be smash-hit "Koko de Kissu Shite". It was also the first time she publicly used her stage-name, Shiina Ringo, instead of Shiina Yumiko. In the end, the Grand Prize went to Takashi Taniguchi, but she managed an Excellence Prize and grabbed attention from all major record labels. She ended up signing with Toshiba EMI.

Funny fact: singer-songwriter aiko also participated in this contest, just like in the Teen's Music Festival '95.

Considering how the 5th edition of Music Quest was the last one, after which Yamaha decided to make normal auditions only, we can thank Ringo for not postponing her participation in the contest, as it would have undoubtedely changed her career in ways we can not imagine!

01 - ここでキスして。 (Koko de Kissu Shite.)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 320x240)

PS - In order to improve the frequency of my updates, I decided to create a template for covers, instead of having to create a different one every time. So it'll be just a screenshot/photo with SR or TJ and the title. Sorry to disappoint the legions of fans of my super cool covers! I'm looking for opinions to improve this template tho, since I'm not a designer. Do you think I should make the text smaller, different color, different background, etc. I'm keeping it as it is for now.

Tokyo Jihen - 2010.11.06 - EMI ROCKS

Considering there's a new EMI ROCKS festival announced for February 19, 2012, here's what we have of the first one, where Tokyo Jihen performed.

BS Fuji broadcasted a 2 hour program covering the festival, but only included 2 or 3 performances for each artist, which left us with "OSCA", "FOUL" and "Killer Tune". However, it doesn't seem the performances were much different from the ones found in the Ultra C Tour earlier that year (altough Ringo sounds a bit drunk which is cool), so we're probably not missing out much. Except for the fact that they performed two songs from "Daihakken", which we haven't heard live anywhere yet: "Tengoku he Yokouso" and "Dopamint!". Hopefully one day I'll get the complete setlist.

EMI ROCKS was a one day festival at Saitama Super Arena to celebrate EMI's 50th anniversary, with around 10 of their biggest rock bands performing, including Acidman, Tomoyasu Hotei, Miyavi, 9mm Parabellum Bullet, Base Ball Bear and others. But apparently the fun doesn't stop there, because there's another EMI ROCKS planned and we still don't know if Tokyo Jihen will make an appearance, but I say it's very likely.

Venue: Saitama Super Arena
Date: 2010.11.06
01 - 天国へようこそ (Tengoku he Yokouso)
02 - OSCA

03 - FOUL
04 - ドーパミント！ (Dopamint!)
05 - キラーチューン (Killer Tune)
06 - 能動的三分間 (Noudouteki Sanpunkan)
07 - 透明人間 (Toumei Nigen)
08 - 勝ち戦 (Kachiikusa)

Only the bolded tracks are available.

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 1280x720 Chapters)

Tokyo Jihen - 2011.06.26 - MUSIC JAPAN

Here's Tokyo Jihen's performance of "Atarashii Bunmeikaika" at MUSIC JAPAN yesterday. It's a pretty performance, but, sadly, the instruments are all playback. Only Ringo's voice is live, and very good at that.

This marks the begin of a bunch of TV Promotions to come soon, by the way. I'm hoping we get some good stuff.

01 - 新しい文明開化 (Atarashii Bunmeikaika)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 852x480)

PS - Only 2 more days for the album!

Shiina Ringo - 2011.05.20 - Music Station

Here is the latest Music Station performance. Ringo was there without the band, promoting the single "女の子は誰でも" as if it was her own. Likely for the same reason why the Shiseido ads had to be changed to feature a Ringo-only version of the song: Hata's incident with the police.

Anyway, she didn't talk much during the whole show, but really had a great finale performance, even tho the vocals were just plain mediocre. We know she doesn't seem to put much effort into any Music Station performance, but I think this song really deserved it.

Ringo's message after the show.

I should start adding these to the Music Station's posts... they're usually quite cute or funny. I'm not sure what she's saying in this one, but I could swear it's some kind of comment about men's (男) transpiration (汗), because the guests had some kind of chat about that kind of scent. Oh well.

01 - 女の子は誰でも (Onna no Ko wa Daredemo)

Download (MP3 V0)

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Shiina Ringo and Tokyo Jihen CMs

The recently "released" new songs are being used as tie-ins with two major ad campaigns, having started this month. "Sora ga Natteiru" works as the theme song for the new Glico Watering KissMint promotional campaign, while "Onna no Ko wa Daredemo" is coupled with Shiseido Maquillage.

However, despite being Tokyo Jihen songs, only Ringo appears in the actual CMs. What's more, even the songs are not the Tokyo Jihen versions, but different ones, due to the Hata Toshiki incident/scandal, something that certainly made both Glico and Shiseido demand a Ringo-only version of the songs.

Fortunately, Glico uploaded the normal versions before any incident happened, so I got those too. Here's the list of what's in this ZIP file.

Watering KissMint CMs:

- Shiina Ringo (Sora ga Natteiru -Shinkai-hen-) 15 and 30 seconds

- Tokyo Jihen (Sora ga Natteiru) 15 and 30 seconds

Shiseido Maquillage CMs:

- Shiina Ringo (Onna no Ko wa Daredemo -Sugao-hen-) 15 and 30 seconds + Making Of

Download (MP4 H264)

Tengoku he Youkoso on YouTube

A friend gave me this link for "Tengoku he Yokukoso" on YouTube. One can only guess when it will get deleted.

Video was removed from YouTube.

Shiina Ringo - 2008.07.14 - Top Runner

The Top Runner episode someone requested! The 3 performances in this TV show have very interesting new arrangements (Yume no Ato isn't very different tho) and so I think it's very worth the watch/listen. Ringo talks about her life and career, with some photos from her youth to ilustrate, which is also interesting of course.

I'm sorry I can't write a bigger entry with more information, but I'm really short of time these days and my main concern was to upload this and that's done, so... Until next time!

01 - 本能 (Honnou)

02 - 意識 (Ishiki)

03 - 夢のあと (Yume no Ato)

Download (MP3 V0)

Download (MP4 H264 1280 x 720 Chapters)

Tokyo Jihen - 2004.07.30 - FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '04

Got this video this morning so decided to upload. It's the FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '04 show that was broadcasted on television. Unfortunately it's only 3 songs out of the complete 15, but it doesn't seem the whole recording is easy to find, so here's the upload. Also found the video uploaded to YouTube by someone else, so you can watch it there instead of downloading.

Video was removed from YouTube.

FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '04 was the 3rd of 4 summer festivals Tokyo Jihen performed in, during 2004. One of the other 4 was Meet the World Beat, which I already uploaded, and as you can see the performances don't sound that different. The only really noticeable difference are the setlists.

01 - 丸の内サディスティック (Marunouchi Sadistic)

02 - 迷彩 (Meisai)

03 - その淑女ふしだらにつき (Sono Onna Fushidara ni Tsuki)

04 - 御祭騒ぎ (Omatsuri Sawagi)

05 - 林檎の唄 (Ringo no Uta)

06 - 遭難 (Sounan)

07 - 群青日和 (Gunjou Biyori)

08 - ダイナマイト (Dynamite)

09 - 事変音頭 (Jihen Ondo)

10 - 歌舞伎町の女王 (Kabukichou no Joou)

11 - サービス (Service)

12 - 幸福論 (Koufukuron)

13 - la salle de bain

14 - 茎～STEM～ (Kuki)

15 - 駅前 (Ekimae)

UPDATE: Felipe, known in the interwebs as Yahiko, gave me the complete bootleg for this show, so here it is. We decided to keep the TV rips from the 3 songs that were broadcast: "Dynamite", "Koufukuron" and "la salle de bain", so you'll notice a sudden change in quality. Regardless, this is totally worth it.

Download (MP3 Various Bitrates)

Download (MP4 H264 640x364 Chapters)

Shiina Ringo - 2007.03.13 - Angela Aki Documentary

I think this is definitely my most unusual upload. It's a TV documentary for Angela Aki's 2006 concert in Budokan, narrated by Shiina Ringo. It's called 武道館に桜が咲いた日 (The Day the Cherry Blossoms Bloomed in Budokan). I only actually heard about this last week, and I guess it probably went a little bit overlooked by us Ringo fans.

There's actually a part where Angela Aki shows the setlist of Suguroku Xstasy, which she attended (in Budokan), and she kept it as a memento since then, promising herself that one day she would perform on that very stage herself.

It is known Aki and Ringo are friends, but unfortunately they never appear together in this video. There's only a small clip from the "Koufukuron" performance from Electric Mole.

Unfortunately there are no subtitles, but Ringo's polite narration voice is always amazing to listen to! I included a chapter in the MP4 so you can skip to the part where Aki shows the Suguroku Xstasy setlist.

Download (MP4 H264 852x480 Chapters)

PS - I need to thank the My Keys International forum, where I got this video from.

Tokyo Jihen - 2004.12.24 - Music Station SUPERLIVE 2004

Here's something I figured would be an easy upload. Found it recently on jpopsuki and even tho it's not a remarkable performance (only the vocals are live), it was still important promotion for the beginning of Phase 1, since many big names in the japanese pop music industry performed in this SUPERLIVE. It *was* a big television event.

Anyway, there you have it. It's "Gunjou Biyori", it's not amazing, it's your typical Music Station performance (this time with bonus pyrotechnics) but it's Phase 1 and HZM is worth watching!

01 - 群青日和 (Gunjou Biyori)

Download (MP3 V1)

Download (MP4 H264 720x404)

PS - This as got to be my worst cover yet!

Tokyo Jihen - 2010.02.28 - Music Japan

Music Japan special episode featuring Tokyo Jihen. I found a version without the tsunami warning all over the screen. Pretty decent show and performances, in my opinion. Highlight goes to "Ikiru" with a figure skating coreography (sadly not live).

01 - 能動的三分間 (Noudouteki Sanpunkan)

02 - 勝ち戦 (Kachiikusa)

03 - 生きる (Ikiru)

04 - シーズンサヨナラ (Season Sayonara)

05 - スーパースター (Superstar)

06 - 閃光少女 (Senkou Shoujo)

Download (MP3 V0)
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